74 Comments

Oil companies do NOTsell their refined product exclusively to their own stations. Like I said before, they generally sell based on their locations as about 20% of the price you pay at the pump is based on transportation costs.

Take this example: Marathon Oil, Corporate HQ in Houston, has most of their refineries (5 out of 7) in the Midwest. Essentially all Marathon stations are located in the Midwest (Marathon is the company with the most service stations in the Midwest- including the most in both Ohio and Michigan).

However, Marathon does have 2 refineries in the south one in Texas City, the other in Louisiana (which happens to be the largest one). If they sold their refined products exclusively to Marathon/SSA stations the transportation costs would be absolutely ridiculous.

Therefore, they sell to whatever stations they can, which works. In addition, many oil companies sell to places like Kroger, or form joint ventures with rest stops (like Pilot or Bucee’s).

@ titsonabull (love the name by the way 🙂 )
I hate to get needlessly involved, or generalise from the few posts you have commented on, but it appears that you are the one getting into needless fights with other commenters and throwing around insults. Bucky was expressing disbelief at your stance on cyclists, not making a personal attack, which is how you seem to have taken it, and subsequently flipped out.
You need to calm the farm, seriously!

alright it seems i owe you guys an apology.. i did go looking for fights, and i was quite intoxicated.. i have been off work for three weeks so far due to shoulder surgery which i guess has left me with a lot of pent up energy which i guess i didn’t channel in a constructive way.. so sorry again to anyone who i owe it to…

@Walter Sobchak
i presume you mean, do your profile.. ok here goes:

At first glance Walter seems a person that time has passed by. Someone who has lived so long that the world is no longer as it was when he learned to survive in it many years ago. Unfortunately for Walter, the world was never as he wanted it to be and he has never fit into it. He deals with the world around him as he wants it to be. He is very pleasant, as long as he perceives that others treat him with courtesy, and respect the things about which he cares. When you fail to recognize the protocol of his interaction he is immediately aroused to a fit of rage because “There are rules” and you have violated them. It is not that he wants his way because it is his way, but because it is right, fair, and respectful.

You are more likely to injured by Walter if you fail to remove your hat when the flag is passing by than if you accidentally drop something on his foot. Accidents are a part of life but blatant premeditated disrespect for the flag is a hanging offence. Walter believes that you know everything that he knows. If you don’t then he will take the time to explain it to you. If you don’t believe, or discount what he says, then you are an idiot or at least “out of your league.”

Walter has studied everything worth knowing, “I once dabbled in pacifism myself.” He is cultured, sophisticated, witty, and if you embarrass him in any situation and demonstrate that he is not really any of these things, then and you have “Crossed the line.” Walter’s greatest short coming is that he is naïve. Just as Richard Nixon didn’t know how to break the law and bungled it, Walter knows only of the things he speaks from books and movies. A sophisticated plan for dealing with kidnappers is to “Grab one of them and beat it out of ‘um.”

Walter is a man whose personal life is in such chaos that he resorts to rules in order to provide concrete support in order that he can function upright and not drown in the disorder of his life. Pulling a 45 Auto on poor Smokey because, “It’s a League game, Smoke; You were over the line; Mark it zero” is an example of this.

Walter was most impressed when the Dude told him that the assailants were “Nihilists.” Walter responds,“Nihilists! Fuck me!” Walter tells us two things here. He accepted the fact that the kidnappers were nihilists and that they believed in nothing. This makes them the polar opposite of Walter whose whole life is ballasted in rules. He also accepted that these were very dangerous people because of the values that they held. This is so telling because at the end of the movie when they tell him that it wasn’t fair that they weren’t going to get the ransom, he shouted, “Fair! Who’s the nihilist here?” I think that he was most angry because they had violated there own standards of behavior by wanting fairness.

These losers decide that they will accept what ever cash Donny, the Dude and Walter have on them in lieu of ransom. Everyone seems OK with this except Walter, “No! What’s mine is mine!” Like Thoran Okanshield in the Hobit, standing alone against two armies refusing to give up the dragons horde of treasures. Donny’s telling question, “Are they going to hurt us?” and Walter’s very caring and quiet answer, “No Donny, these men are cowards” demonstrates that Walter has no idea how serious the situation really is.

The most phenomenal thing is that when the three of them attack, Walter, who has a pistol in his bowling bag, instead of ending it right there and making them leave, instead throws the bag at one of them, breaking three of his ribs. Then he rips another’s ear off with his teeth and punches him in the face. This is all movie behavior. Not real, but Walter makes it real. It is very hard to go through life this way, never growing, never building on ideas and incorporating the inevitable changes in beliefs and values that knowledge and experience requires. I cry for Walter because he seems so very real to me. This is a man who like a moth around a flame just keeps going in circles.

That was a pretty well written analysis of Walter Sobchak… except for the author’s assessment that Walter “has no idea how serious the situation is really is.” Walter’s judgement of the situation was fair and accurate.

lazy.. yes.. but writing one for you would be more than just writing it.. i would have to go find a video store in this area i’ve recently moved too.. sit through 118 min of a movie i found well written but only mildly entertaining the first and only time i saw it, some 10 or so years ago.. pausing and rewinding to explore and understand the depths of walter.. then summarize it as an in depth analysis of him, when i have no experience at all with psychology. when i haven’t written anything since i left school at 16 years old, some 7 years ago. for some guy that i have no interest in anything more than annoying him.. thats a tall order if you ask me…

i actually agree with the authors assessment of that situation. walter lives in a fantasy world, he definitely had no idea the seriousness of the situation… he has no understanding of reality in general.. the only reason he’s survived life this long with his attitude, is luck.. but you are entitled to your opinion

Are you drunk again? Because I’d love to argue with you. Now, I’m usually drunk when I’m commenting here (like now), but that just leads to the standard baby rape jokes. But I could get angry. Assault someone’s character. Are you game?

@ soup.. feel free to “assault my character”.. though i will be busy for the next 20 hours or so.. so don’t be disheartened by me not responding.. i will eventually.. i’ll make sure i’m drunk and ready by the time i do.. and if anyone else wants to join in thats fine…
i look forward to being made to look like a fool.
until then..

That oil and gas question was a legitimate. I dont know the difference. They didnt teach me that in school, so how else would I have learned? All I know is that gas is gas and is mysteriously linked to oil prices, 5w 30 belongs in the oil reserve in my car, and theres a butt load of oil in the ocean. Big fricken deal..